Close games are nothing new for the Pleasant Valley baseball team - three of the Bears' first four contests this season have been decided by one run.

With Pleasant Valley holding a 5-3 lead entering the top of the seventh inning in Monday's nonleague game against Lehighton, it looked like that trend might continue.Until Brent Beck stepped to the plate.Beck cleared the bases with a three-run double to blow open a close game, and the Bears topped the Indians 9-3."We've been preaching all year long that you've gotta believe - believe in one another," said Pleasant Valley head coach Jeff Lazowski. "Even though a game's tight - one run game, two run game - I have confidence in all my guys, and I think they're finally starting to believe in themselves and one another."I just knew, whether it be the second, third, fourth, fifth inning that we were going to put some guys on and somebody was going to go ahead and be the guy to get that hit. Fortunately, today it was Brent Beck."The seventh inning started when Bears' starting pitcher Brett Hardy reached on an error and Kieran Kearns was hit by a pitch before Dakota George reached to load the bases and set the stage for Beck."It was a great team win. I think everyone contributed," said Beck, who finished 1-for-4. "We started off real well ... but then we came back strong, finished it off."Pleasant Valley (3-2) struck for three runs in the top of the first. Kearns, Matt Konopke and Dakota George all drove in runs to give the Bears' a 3-0 lead."We're a tight bunch," said Hardy. "We stick together. We know we can fight through everything together, and we know we can scratch the runs across to win the game at the end."George finished with two RBIs, while Nick Gattuso went 2-for-4 with one RBI and Connor Pandolfo drove in one run and collected two hits."Sometimes, it takes these guys a while to turn that switch on," said Lazowski. "But once it's on, the gates are open."We got out early ... but they realized, hey, hey, we've got to get this going. Any given time, any given guy. And it's great."Cleanup hitter Collin Haput went 3-for-4 with two RBIs and a double for the Indians (3-1).Haupt drove in Donovan Buchinsky (1-for-3) with a two-out double on a two-strike pitch in the bottom of the first to make it 3-1.The senior delivered again in the bottom of the third, plating Chris Whiteman (2-for-3, two runs scored) with a single to bring Lehighton within a run at 3-2.After a sacrifice fly by PV's Dakota George in the top of the fifth, Buchinsky answered with an RBI double that scored Whiteman and again brought the Indians within a run at 4-3.But that was the closest Lehighton would get, as the Bears closed with five unanswered runs in the final two innings."It was a good test for us today," said Lehighton head coach Brian Polaha. "We knew it would be a good test, and we were right in there. They got a couple hits at the end."I thought we had a couple chances to put more pressure on them in the middle of the game than we did."BATTLE TESTED... Pleasant Valley opened the season with a 6-5 win against Blue Mountain before falling to Nazareth 5-4 and Whitehall 5-1. The Bears bounced back with a 3-2 win over Pocono Mountain East Saturday.BATTLE TESTED PART II... Lehighton is no stranger to close games. After thumping Pocono Mountain West 12-2 in the opener, the Indians edged Pine Grove 2-1 in nine innings before topping Jim Thorpe 6-5 on Saturday.Pleasant Vy. 300 011 4 - 9 8 0Lehighton 101 010 0 - 3 6 4Hardy, Guzman (6), Stivala (7) and Pandolfo; Scherer, Haupt (5), Sensinger (7) and Wagner. W - Hardy. L - Scherer.